Olympus PEN Lite E-PL5

The Olympus PEN Lite E-PL5 ($699.99 direct with lens) is the mid-level entry in the company's line of compact Micro Four Thirds cameras. It's a bit bigger than the PEN E-PM2, but doesn't quite have the advanced control layout found in the PEN E-P3 . Under the hood, the camera has the same 16-megapixel image sensor and processing engine found in our Editors' Choice for high-end compact interchangeable lens cameras (CILCs), the Olympus OM-D E-M5 , so it's no surprise that its image quality and performance are excellent. It isn't quite enough camera to knock our entry-level Editors' Choice CILC, the Sony Alpha NEX-F3 ?from its perch, but Micro Four Thirds shooters will be hard pressed to find a better compact body than the PEN Lite.

Design and Features
The E-PL5's body isn't that much bigger than a large point-and-shoot camera. At 2.5 by 4.4 by 1.5 inches, it's actually smaller than the fixed-lens Fujifilm X10?, although the PEN's size advantage is diminished when you attach a lens. It feels a little heavy for its size given its 11.4-ounce weight. The E-PL5 is available in black or silver with a black handgrip, or in white with a tan grip. If you aren't happy with the color of the grip, you can replace it with a gray checked or brown striped grip, each available for around $45, or simply remove it and use the camera sans grip.

The bundled lens is a 14-42mm zoom (28-84mm equivalent). It's the same collapsible design that Olympus has bundled with previous generations of PEN cameras. It's about 2 inches shallower when collapsed, which makes it easier to squeeze into your camera bag.

The 3-inch rear LCD supports touch input, so you can select a focus point, fire the shutter, and swipe through photos during playback. The display is hinged so that it tilts up or down, making it possible to use the camera above your ahead or at your waist. Its 460k-dot resolution is adequately sharp, but it's not as crisp as the 921k-dot display found on Sony's NEX-F3.

The control layout is more robust than that of the PEN E-PM5, but still leaves a bit to be desired. There's a mode dial on top, as well as dedicated buttons to control Exposure Compensation, the Drive Mode, and flash control. If you're shooting in Aperture or Shutter Priority mode you'll first have to tap the EV Compensation button to gain access to aperture and shutter speed control. Other cameras with a similar wheel simply let you move it to the left or right to adjust the aperture or shutter when shooting in those modes.

Additional shooting settings are adjusted via an overlay menu, accessed via the OK button in the center of the rear dial. From here you can adjust Metering, Autofocus, ISO, and other common settings.

The PEN Lite supports the same art filters built into the E-PM2. Changing the top mode dial to the Art setting gives you access to numerous in-camera effects, all of which are previewed in real time. You can capture grainy black and white photos, emulate a pinhole camera, apply a sepia tone to monochrome images, and use the miniature effect to make real-life scenes look like scale models. When in Art mode your photos are saved in JPG mode, but you shoot Raw and JPG simultaneously an unprocessed Raw image will be saved as well.

There's no Wi-Fi support, which is becoming more common in both point-and-shoot and compact interchangeable lens cameras. Olympus recommends that you use a Toshiba FlashAir card to add wireless support, and is offering one for free via mail-in rebate with the purchase of the E-PL5 through the end of 2012. If you want a mirrorless camera with integrated Wi-Fi, consider the Samsung NX1000 . It offers one of the best implementations of the technology, one that lets you post photos directly to Facebook and other social networking sites directly from the the camera.

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